


on a river that winds on forever

by Adoravel_Fenomeno



Series: KitTy one-shot AUs [3]
Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Wicked Powers Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Angels, Fallen Angels, Friendship/Love, Light Angst, M/M, Necromancy, Scholomance, romanian culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25994482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adoravel_Fenomeno/pseuds/Adoravel_Fenomeno
Summary: As papers flew around him and the air whistled, white mist started fogging up his vision. He screamed the last verses, his eyes screwed shut, and all the candles in the room went out instantly."Michael?" a boy’s voice asked, "Michael, is that you?"Ty straightened up his posture, arranged his already-flawless clothes, and, with the most serious expression he could muster, said, "I am Tiberius Nero Blackthorn, and I conjure you, fallen angel Christopher, to bring Livia Blackthorn back to life."“Oh fuck.”…In which Kit, a semi-fallen angel, is conjured by Ty, a student in Scholomance, to bring Livvy back from the dead. Inspired by the original stories of Scholomance, the Devil’s school, and what I could grasp on other Romanian stories.
Relationships: Livia Blackthorn & Tiberius Blackthorn, Tiberius Blackthorn/Kit Rook
Series: KitTy one-shot AUs [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876717
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	on a river that winds on forever

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song ‘ends of the earth’ by lord huron.
> 
> This one is based on Romanian folklore and has a few parts in Ty's POV. As you can guess, they were both very difficult to me, since I’m not Romanian myself, and none of CC’s books have Ty’s POV. If there’s anything (and I mean literally _anything_ ) here that is inaccurate/stereotyped/offensive/out of character, please let me know so I can edit it out, even if I have to change the story :) (well, that counts for all of my fics, really)
> 
> TW: there’s a quick and not very explicit mention of vomiting in the beginning. I don’t think it’ll be a problem for anyone, but, at the same time, I’ve been reading a lot about emetophobia and I’m really scared of triggering anyone. Be safe!
> 
> (Tiny reminder that this is the third part of a series where I’ll be posting KitTy one-shot AUs twice a week. The next one will be up on Sunday!)
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing❤️❤️❤️

"Before you reach God, the saints will eat you," the librarian had said to Ty, and the scripture on the book’s cover repeated it.

"I don't wish to reach God," he had replied. "I wish to get back to Earth."

And, because of that, not the librarian nor the book had any troubles in doing what he had asked them to.

Ty chanted the spell carefully, the ancient words rolling out of his tongue like a deadly poem. "It's not deadly, though," he tried to convince himself. "It's to bring life."

As papers flew around him and the air whistled, white mist started fogging up his vision. He screamed the last verses, his eyes screwed shut, and all the candles in the room went out instantly.

"Michael?" a boy’s voice asked, "Michael, is that you?"

Ty straightened up his posture, arranged his already-flawless clothes, and, with the most serious expression he could muster, said, "I am Tiberius Nero Blackthorn, and I conjure you, fallen angel Christopher, to bring Livia Blackthorn back to life."

“Oh fuck.”

…

The first thing Kit had to learn when he descended to the Earth was how to breathe. He could feel everything with his new body, the bags of air expanding and shrinking in his ribcage, the burning-hot liquid running through thin pathways that went straight to a steadily-beating ball of meat in the middle of his chest. 

Needless to say, the second thing he had to learn was how to clean the vomit he had spilled on the library’s carpet.

The boy that had conjured him, Tiberius, was a quiet one, not saying a word while he brought tissues and towels. Once, Kit had read that humans were uncomfortable around entities, cute boys, and naked people, but Tiberius didn’t seem too bothered about him.

“So,” Kit tried to start a conversation while he scrubbed the carpet, “Livia, huh? Was that a… girlfriend of yours?”

Tiberius looked at him with a contorted face. “You heard me. We both have the same last name.”

“Wife, then?”

“I’m eighteen.”

“Does that disqualify you to be a husband?”

“I would say so, yes.”

“Huh.” Kit looked at the painted ceiling, remembering when God impregnated a fourteen-year-old girl. “How times have changed.”

Tiberius didn’t bother to answer, letting Kit get lost in his daydreaming of the Old World. The crashing waves on the beach, the all-consuming fire, the voices, screaming and begging, and, suddenly, a cold so strong it paralyzed him for years on end.

After cleaning all the mess he had made—human bodies were, in fact, disgusting—they left the library to a room Tiberius had claimed it was his. He handed Kit some clothes, and, although the thought about protesting, Kit knew it was better not to draw attention to himself.

Tiberius muttered a bunch of Necromancy facts he couldn’t absorb, pulled out a book from under his bed, and tried to explain the complicated spell he had to do to bring Livia Blackthorn back.

“Wait, wait.” Kit gesticulated to make him stop talking. “Are you aware that I’m…”

"A demon, yes."

"Not a demon. A fallen angel. Wait, no, not a fallen angel, a semi-fallen angel. An almost-fallen angel, actually. Well, you got it."

"Yes."

"And you're aware that I don't actually have to do anything, right? Like, the spell you made was only to call me, not to imprison me or anything like that."

Tiberius was nodding rapidly. "Yes, yes, I know all that, I'm the one that made the spell, dumbass."

"So why do you think I would help you with something so macabre as Necromancy?" Kit asked, pretending not to care that he was called a dumbass.

"Why wouldn't you? It's not like you haven't done worse things."

Kit took a step back, images passing through his corneas like a fast motion slideshow. It was blood, so much blood, and golden ichor, a burning fire, scalding hot, and, then, so cold, like he was being drowned in freezing water.

"I'm not gonna help you do Necromancy. It's vile."

Tiberius scrunched his face. “You’re vile.”

“ _You’re vile,_ ” Kit repeated in a mockingly high-pitched voice, making Tiberius scrunch his face even more. “I may be vile, but not Necromancy-vile. That’s a whole other level. I’m not doing it, I’m getting the hell out of here.”

“You can’t.”

“What do you mean I can’t?”

“This is Scholomance, if you hadn’t noticed. The Devil’s school.” Tiberius sat on the bed, and that was when Kit noticed—the carvings of crying faces on the bedpost; the golden spirals that crescendoed from the ground to the ceiling, which was painted with floral swirls and angular strokes. “Do you think it would be a good thing if you, a follower of his, just left and kept living as an angel as if nothing happened?”

He wasn’t a follower of the Devil. He wasn’t an angel, either. Kit didn’t know how to define what he was. But, one thing was certain, he didn’t wish to upset God nor Devil.

“No, it wouldn’t,” Kit admitted. “But I’m not helping you either, okay? I’m just gonna…—” He sat awkwardly on the boy’s bed, not yet sure of how to move his human body, “—hang around for a bit, I guess.”

“You do whatever you want,” Tiberius muttered as he got up. “I’m gonna study how to bring Livvy back. And, hopefully, on the way, I’m gonna find out how to make an almost-fallen angel obey me.”

…

Ty had been sitting in the library for hours when Christopher showed up. At first, Ty hadn’t even noticed he was there, so he continued to read his books and mark the pages he thought were relevant. After a while, though, the noise of falling books and opening doors started to get to him, the final straw being the flickering lights that prevented him from reading in the dark.

“Would you stop doing that?” he asked, not diverting his eyes from the book.

“No, I don’t think so.” Christopher turned off the lights once more. “I’m just really unpleasant. My apologies.”

Ty huffed and put his book down. It was time to accept that he wasn’t going to get any more work done. “Sit down.”

Surprisingly, Christopher did sit down, but with such discontent that the chair screeched loudly on the floor.

"Stop doing that too," Ty snapped.

Christopher raised his hands in a surrender gesture. "Sorry to be so inconvenient, mister Tiberius. Maybe you shouldn't have conjured me after all."

"Ty," he corrected. "Call me Ty."

"Only if you stop calling me Christopher." After a few beats, he added, "And if you stop trying to bring back your… mother?"

"Sister. Livvy was my twin."

"Oh." Not-Christopher smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. It must be hard to lose a twin."

"It was. And if you understood that, you would help me bring her back."

"No way. I'm not that gullible."

Not-Christopher looked at him in defiance as if expecting some kind of ultimatum. The problem was that, even if he wanted to, he didn't have any power or authority to make Not-Christopher obey him.

"How do you want me to call you, then?"

Not-Christopher raised his eyebrows and gave up on the stare-down.

"Kit," he answered while he relaxed his posture and looked at the window next to them. "That's what the others called me, anyways."

…

"How are these hallways always empty? Isn't this supposed to be a school?" Kit asked as they walked past yet another set of old paintings and gold ornaments. Yeah, they were cute at the beginning, but the aesthetics were getting old, in his opinion. And so was the lack of light. Whose idea was it to build a school underground?

"There are only ten Solomonari in a huge castle," Ty answered. "I think it makes sense that it's kind of empty."

"Solomo-what?"

"So-lo-mo-na-ri," Ty repeated slowly for him. "That's what the students that attend Scholomance are called."

"I'm sorry if I'm disrespecting your system or whatever, but it sounds pretty dumb to me that He only has ten students. I mean, He could have thousands and create an army or something."

"He already has an army or something. He doesn't need more students, he needs applied ones."

"And you're applied," Kit mocked.

"I'm the best."

And Kit didn't doubt it. All the time that he spent by Ty's side, he was either reading or chattering endlessly about creating storms or a specific balaur's anatomy. It was kind of mesmerizing how Ty could know so much about what he loved.

They passed through a tiny room, where Ty opened the creaking wooden door that led to a huge set of stairs.

"And here we are," Ty said as he winced at the sunlight that hit them when they stepped out on the grass. "They’re usually sleeping at this time."

"Where do they sleep?" Kit bounced on the balls of his feet, an ability he had learned to master not long ago. He had never seen a balaur. When he got frozen, centuries before, he was a young angel with no real-life experience. Having a Mortal give him his only life experience would be a reason for laughter to the other angels.

“In the lairs.” Ty covered his head with his cape’s hood and started walking down the dirt road. “I’m sure we can take a look at them anyway.”

Around them, the wind whistled, and the mountains towered like giants fighting in the war. Kit remembered the other angels talking about the construction of mountains; the Earth was too large, and, when God tried to shrink it, the mountains were raised. He never imagined them quite so grand. Kit didn’t know if things looked so scary because of his inexperience, or because they were in the Devil’s school.

The lairs, as it seemed, were a bunch of rocks pilling on each other and a narrow pathway that led to a dark cave under the lake. Heavy breathing and grunts resonated through the walls, and the ground was so slippery that Kit had to support himself on Ty, who shrugged him off.

“Okay, Ty, I take it back, I don’t think this was a good idea.”

“Don’t be stupid, they’re just balauri.” Ty ran his fingers through the pointy bits that stood out on the walls. “Plus, you’re with a professional. I’m trained for this, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Even professionals can get eaten.”

As they got closer to the noises that Kit heard, the more his body started to shake. He assumed it was a normal body-thing, but he still didn’t enjoy it.

“Name, please,” a high-pitched voice piped up.

In front of them was a little girl, couldn't be more than ten years old, holding a clipboard with one hand and twisting her patterned dress in the other.

“Hey, Alina,” Ty said as he crouched down to level with her. “It’s Tiberius. Tiberius Blackthorn.”

She looked at Kit with the most unimpressed face he had ever seen. “And he is…?”

“How about—” Ty took a Tupperware out of his cape and handed it to her. “—you take these Papanași I made and let him in?”

She turned her boring stare to Ty. “You think I can be bought with desserts?”

“Yes?”

Alina considered Ty’s gift, putting her clipboard under her arm and tentatively opening the Tupperware's lid. “It looks good.”

“Good enough to let us in?”

She closed the lid and, with a pen stuck to the clipboard, wrote something on it. “Sure.” Her nod to the interior of the cave was enough to make Ty stand up. “But remember you’re on probation. More funny shit and you’re out.”

Ty grabbed hold of one of Kit’s loose sleeves and pulled him to the end of the path. As they bypassed Alina, Kit saw her opening the Tupperware and eating one of the desserts.

“Who is she?” he asked Ty.

“Alina. She’s the balauri’s caretaker,” Ty explained. “She’s been here for more time than I have, approximately when they first built the lairs.”

It seemed somehow wrong to leave a kid to do the job, Kit thought. Even if she was older than he expected. But he wasn’t the one making decisions there, and Kit wouldn’t start a war on the Devil just to protect Alina.

All the cold Kit had felt—cold, that was the word he was looking for to describe the painful trembly feeling—dissipated as they entered deeper into the cave. The sounds only got worse, though, and so did the smell. It was putrid, like a long-gone fish rotting in a trash bin, and Kit didn’t feel all that excited to meet the balauri anymore.

“We’re getting closer,” Ty whispered to him after a few minutes of walking.

“Thank God,” he whispered back.

As they turned the last corner, a bolt of lightning struck the wall next to Kit’s head. He ducked, his weak-human body shaking in fear, and looked at Ty with an outraged face.

“What the fuck was that?”

Ty’s gray eyes were gleaming, his hands flapping in enthusiasm. “They’re happy to see us.”

And the balauri, in fact, seemed pretty pleased to see Ty. Who wouldn’t, Kit thought to himself.

There were only three balauri in that part of the lair, but Ty assured him there were more in the other segments. Their multiple heads leaned on Ty, searching for his affection. He scratched behind their ears and smoothed out their wings when they started to flap.

Kit stood behind, too grossed out at their moist scales and constant drooling. He had expected the balauri to be more like the cool dragons painted on Scholomance’s ceilings, but they appeared to be more like dogs in the bodies of multi-headed giant snakes. And with wings. Okay, maybe they were kind of cool.

“Come pet them,” Ty called.

Kit shook his head.

“They won’t hurt you.”

“Bold words coming from someone who almost got shot in the head with lightning.”

“‘Almost’ being the operative word,” Ty answered as he stroked one of the heads of a particularly needy balaur. Kit almost felt jealous, but then remembered he, at least, didn’t live in a damp cave. “C’mon, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Kit took a few tentative steps toward one of the heads. It leaned on him as well, sniffing his face. “I’m not the one smelling like rotten fish here, buddy,” he muttered at the balaur. It didn’t have any visible reaction, but Ty laughed.

“They do smell bad. I wonder when was the last time Alina gave them a shower.”

“A long time ago, I suspect.” Kit raised one hand. It supported its head on Kit’s hand. Kit scratched under its chin, and a bolt of lightning went over his head, blackening the stone wall.

Ty laughed at him. “See? I told you it would be fine.”

“I’m not sure if this defines fine.”

“I think it does.”

“It just threw lightning at my face.”

“That’s just how they show affection.” 

Kit glared at the balaur's face—one of them, at least—but it just showed more glee by sniffing his face and nuzzling his cheek.

Eventually, he gave in to the cuteness of it and started petting its head. Ty seemed happy, and Kit had to admit, even with the gross texture of the scales, it felt pretty good to have something that gave and expected so much affection with no malicious intentions.

"Do they have names?"

"No," Ty answered. "At least, I don't know them. He never told us. Maybe Alina has one for them."

Kit highly doubted it. Alina didn't seem the kind of person to give names to pets. "I'll call her Mihaela," he said.

"It's a male."

"Then I'll call him Mihaela."

"Fair enough," Ty laughed. His laugh was kind of cute.

“Do you guys get one balaur for each or do you share them all?”

“It’s mostly sharing,” he explained, “but we all have favorites.”

Kit hugged Mihaela’s neck. “I certainly have mine.”

…

“I didn’t want to come to this,” Ty said to Kit as he stared at Livvy’s photo in his hands.

“Come to what?”

Kit was sprawled on his bed, reading some sort of informational book on how to treat balauri. Ty would think it was cute if it weren’t for the dread filling his mind.

He laid the picture on his desk and sat on his chair, facing Kit straight up.

“I want you to resurrect my sister.”

“I know.” Kit rolled his eyes. “And I told you, I’m not doing it.”

“But I do have straight contact with Nefartatul.”

“You wouldn’t.”

"I would." And that was the whole truth. No, he didn't want to, but, yes, he would.

“Necromancy is vile. I’m not taking any part in it.”

Ty snorted. “Who told you? Who told you Necromancy is vile? God? Because, if it was him, I can’t see why this is a rational excuse. Many innocent things are vile in the eyes of God.”

Kit shook his head. He looked so fragile. “It’s vile, Ty. Believe me.”

“How would you even know that?” Ty’s leg started bouncing. He didn’t like where that conversation was going. He didn’t like arguing with Kit.

“I tried to bring someone back, once.”

Ty raised his head to look at him. It was like the air stopped moving around them, everything paused with the heaviness of his words.

“She hadn’t deserved it,” Kit continued, his face tense and his gaze focused on the floor. “And I was a child. Stupid, stupid child. I knew that what I was doing wasn’t right.”

“What happened?” Ty said, carefully.

“Her husband was the one to do it to her. He had to build a monastery, the biggest one to ever exist. But he couldn’t. The construction had failed, and there wasn’t much left to do.”

Something clicked in Ty’s mind. He had heard that story before, in a talking legend or fantasy book. There was an old custom, one that said that only sacrifice would give success to a construction.

“So he placed his wife in the foundations, her body rotting in between the walls,” Ty finished.

“Her name was Ana,” he said. His face looked so tense, like he was about to cry. “I couldn’t do much, I was too young and powerless.”

“But you tried anyway.”

“I called whoever could hear, gathered all my strength to bring her back.”

Ty sat by his side on the bed, not sure what to do. “And what happened?”

“The universe laughed at me,” Kit snorted. “She was still dead, but, for some reason, her dumbass husband died with her, not too many days after.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ty rushed. He tried to come up with something better to say, but he had no idea of how to comfort Kit. “You didn’t wish to kill him, it couldn’t have been you.”

“Maybe not,” Kit conceded. “But that doesn’t change the fact that even if the Necromancy had succeeded, what would we do after? Ana would wake up under thousands of building blocks, scared, and with a mind that had seen death itself. It sounds more of a punishment than salvation to me.”

Ty understood what Kit was trying to say, he really did. But Livvy was strong, resilient, and, most of all, so alive. She was the one who brought all the light to their family. She couldn’t be dead, it wasn’t natural. The universe couldn’t be so cruel.

“My condolences to Ana,” Ty said. “But my Livvy will have a different story.”

…

Kit tried to ignore the threat for the time being. It was something unspoken between them; they wouldn't mention any Necromancy until they absolutely had to.

For the following weeks, Kit kept their usual schedule going. 

They woke up in the morning, when Ty went to class and Kit hid in his room, reading and snooping around his drawers.

Then, Ty would bring lunch to him at noon, and they sat together on his desk and talked about whatever came to mind—anything but Necromancy.

When the day started to darken, Ty would leave his afternoon classes and meet Kit in the little room that preceded the stairs to the outside world.

Those were Kit's favorite hours. He and Ty usually only walked through the fields and observed the lake, but, sometimes, they also descended to the lairs, saying hello to Alina and petting Mihaela.

That evening, though, they went a bit further away than that.

Ty brought more desserts to Alina than usual—three full Tupperwares!—so they could not only visit Mihaela, but also take him for a ride.

"How do they even get out of here?" Kit asked after they had already climbed up on Mihaela's back.

Ty just laughed and looked up, muttering, "Hold on tight."

Mihaela spat a huge bolt of lightning directly into the ceiling. Kit saw the stalactites collapse, the rocks sliding to the sides and gleaming blue.

They took off at such speed that Kit couldn't even take a breath. Water flooded his lungs for a few seconds, making him remember that the lairs were right under the lake, but soon they were flying in the air, over the great fields where Scholomance stood under.

Kit grasped Ty's waist even tighter, holding on for dear life. It had been way too long since he last fled through the clouds.

Ty was laughing maniacally in front of him, and Kit couldn't help but laugh too. His clothes were soaking wet, the sharp air cutting through them to raise bumps is his skin, and his lungs failed to work through the freezing cold. It all made him feel more human, more helpless, and more _alive._

"Can you make the thing?" Kit screamed in Ty's ear through the whistling wind.

Ty laughed more and nodded, giving two pats in one of Mihaela's heads.

They twirled in the sky, higher and higher, until Kit felt he would faint out of breath.

The clouds danced, and Ty ran his fingers in the top of them as they spun, faster by the minute. All of Mihaela's heads spread to different directions, spitting thunder in every visible point.

The clouds unloaded water down the fields, pouring rain under them, but not above.

Kit held on tighter to Ty's waist. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to feel closer. He supported his chin on Ty's shoulder, expecting some kind of repudiation, but nothing came.

The storm they had created derailed, intensified the more they fled through the sky, and Kit started to feel like it was a bit too much. He didn't want to alert anyone of their presence.

"I think we should go down," Kit said in Ty's ear.

Ty touched Mihaela's neck, who slowed down his pace and started flying softly towards the ground.

They got off Mihaela's back and stepped into the wet grass, the fresh air filling Kit's nose. Ty sat on the ground and, out of the bag strapped on his waist, took out a Tupperware.

"I was supposed to give it to Alina," Ty explained with a mischievous smile, "but she was already sold on only three of them."

Kit chuckled and sat beside Ty. He eyed the desserts, but none of them seemed that appetizing. That was a novelty, since Kit always felt hungry in his human body. But the air was too humid, the knots in his stomach too tight, and the night too magic to do something as simple as eating.

“What will you do if you don’t get your sister back?” Kit asked quietly, afraid to disrupt the sizzling atmosphere around them. He knew he was breaking their unspoken rule, but it felt like the right time to ask that sort of question.

“That won’t happen,” Ty replied. “Livvy will come back no matter what.”

Kit lied down on the ground, his hands going back to act as a pillow. “I wish I ever loved somebody as much as you love Livvy.”

Ty cleaned his jelly-sticky fingers on his pants and lied down next to Kit. “I thought you loved Ana.”

He snorted. “I didn’t even know her. And I was, what, sixteen? I think that would be the corresponding age in human years.” Kit wasn’t sure, though. Years passed differently when he was an angel. “Her death was just unfair. And I wanted to save someone.”

“When were you frozen?”

Kit forced himself to remember, but the memories only spurred another set of sensations; cold, so cold, so helpless. “I think I was around eighteen,” he settled.

“You’re my age, then.”

“I guess.” He turned on his side only to find Ty was already looking at him. He quickly diverted his gaze, but Kit knew what he had seen. “If you only count the years I spent alive, then, yes.”

“‘Before you reach God, the saints will eat you’,” Ty quoted. “Is that true?”

Kit couldn't help but feel a bit shocked. "What?"

"They say that, when the archangel Michael sealed Heaven, the angels that hadn't yet fallen got frozen, and, since then, they force to Hell whoever goes to Paradise." Ty started to fiddle with the Tupperware's lid in his hands. "Do you think that Livvy, on her way to Heaven, got pushed down?"

"Ty, I…" Kit sat up and hugged his knees, not sure of what to say. "Ty, I never tried to eat any soul that went through the Gates. I can't say the same for the other ones, though."

"So you think Livvy might've gone to Hell. That, when I do the spell, she’ll come back as someone who has seen Hell itself.”

“Ty…” Kit wanted to reach out and comfort him, to hold him and say it would all be fine. But it wouldn’t, because either Ty would never see his sister, or he would, and the universe would counter-attack. “Ty, have you ever heard of the Blajini?”

“Those little creatures?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Have you ever read about them?”

“Not much, no. Nefartatul said it wasn’t that important to our studies.”

Kit suppressed a shiver at hearing the Devil’s name. “God used to say the same thing to us. But it always brought me solace when I was feeling helpless.”

Ty turned to look at him, confused. “Why?”

“Can you imagine? They live at the Ends of the Earth, Ty. It’s a mirror image of our own world, but there isn’t any of our distresses. Any of our traumas and anguish, they don’t exist there. It’s just you, the world, and those rat-headed little gremlins.”

“The Ends of the Earth,” Ty repeated quietly. “It sure does sound nice.”

…

Ty adjusted the collar of Kit’s cape, his fingertips brushing his collarbones.

“Is this really necessary?” Kit asked with an annoyed voice.

Ty reasoned, “It makes you blend in.”

All the Solomonari wore plain white capes over their usual clothes, and, although they had managed to keep Kit a secret until then, it was too risky to let him roam around with his normal attire.

“It’s scratchy.”

“I know.”

Kit turned his displeased face to the other wall as Ty kneeled on the ground to fix the bottom hem of the cape.

With a needle in his mouth, Ty said, “Do you think it’s too big?”

“I’m not that much shorter than you.”

He got up and gestured at their height difference. “I don’t know, I think it’s almost ten centimeters.”

“It’s _not_ ten centimeters,” Kit said. “And, even if it was, that’s not much.”

Ty laughed at all his frowning. He got so easily grumpy.

“Don’t forget your books,” Kit remembered him as he left the room.

“Never.”

The classes were boring, as they usually were in those last few days. Not that the subject itself was boring—he would never get tired of learning about balauri and animal languages. But knowing that Kit was all alone in his room brought an itch he couldn’t quite define, except for the thought, ‘why am I here and not with him?’

Ty sucked it up and focused on his readings, studying until noon arrived, when he got to take his food and go up to his room.

“What is this?” Kit asked with a strained voice the moment he opened the door.

He was sitting on the ground, a paper in his hands. It was a paper Ty knew very well. His letter for Nefartatul.

“Kit, this is not—”

“This is not what? Not what I think?” He stood up, his chin raised in defiance, but his eyes filled with tears. “Then, please, explain what it is.”

“I won’t give it to him,” Ty answered with a weak voice.

“Bullshit!” Kit screamed, and Ty covered his ears at the sudden noise. Kit clasped his hand over his mouth as if regretting yelling. “But you were going to, weren’t you? If I don’t bring your sister back, you will,” he said, quieter that time.

Ty looked away from him. He couldn’t handle seeing his crying face. “It’s Livvy. I gotta do anything in my power to have her back.”

Kit nodded, his eyes still watery, and sat on the bed, patting the mattress next to him so Ty would sit there.

“Ty, listen to me.” His voice was shaky, and so was his hand, when he raised it to place it over Ty’s. “Telling Him I’m here won’t do any good for you. He’ll get mad at you too, you know.”

Ty grabbed Kit’s hand tightly. “I know. But I need you to know that I’m willing to risk that if it brings my sister back.”

“Why? Is she that important?”

Ty looked at Kit in half-shock. He really didn’t understand, did he? “She brought all the light to my life.” An unexpected sob came up Ty’s throat, and, before he could realize, he was crying along with Kit.

Kit drew him closer, placing Ty’s head on his shoulder, and rubbing circles on his back.

“But I can’t do it, Ty, I can’t do it,” he repeated quietly. And Ty didn’t say anything else, because he knew that was true.

He squeezed Kit’s body tight, and, through his tears, said, “Then I’ll have to tell Him you’re here. You know I won’t stop myself.”

…

Kit thought about running away, he really did. Running away from Ty, from the Devil. But it was impossible.

First, he couldn't run away from the only home he had on Earth. He didn't understand how the world worked. He had never taken a breath without Ty by his side.

Second, no one could escape the Devil.

If Ty were to tell Him Kit was unfrozen and on Earth, that would be the end of it. He would have to join in His little group or something, and say goodbye to any sort of freedom.

Or, worse, God could claim him and give him some kind of eternal punishment in Heaven, like carrying suitcases for the holy souls or scrubbing heavenly bathrooms.

So he didn't run away. He stayed, quiet, motionless, in every dark corner of Scholomance he could find, just waiting for Ty to back off and say 'you know what, forget my sister, she's long gone now, come back and be my friend.'

However, that never happened. Instead of apology words, what came was the most terrifying earth tremors he had ever seen.

"Ty," he cried out, "Ty, what did you do?"

There was no answer. Not that it was necessary, because Kit knew exactly what Ty had done.

The whole structure of Scholomance shook with the strength of the earthquake, and Kit knew exactly what it meant.

The Devil had found him.

Desperate, Kit didn't know what to do, where to run. He climbed up the stairs that led to the outsides, rushing through the trees and collapsing mountains to arrive at the lairs.

Alina was nowhere to be seen, and, although Kit was relieved by it at first, he knew it was a bad sign. If even Alina was afraid of the Devil's wrath, Kit should be passing out with fear.

Kit curled up on the side of the cave, shrinking into the smallest ball possible, having only Mihaela by his side.

…

Ty remembered clearly the day Livvy had died.

It was a rainy afternoon, and both of them were sprawled on the floor of their bedroom, reading sorcery books and laughing together.

Livvy had told him not to go to Scholomance. Not to trust God nor Devil. Not to go too far on a path he couldn’t walk back. He didn’t listen, he was too busy studying weather-change and storms. He should have listened.

That night, she invited him out. She said she would meet some friends, Ty, why don’t you come with? He had answered no. No, because he wanted to get into Scholomance, and, for that, he needed to be applied. Plus, he had never liked her friends that much.

Then, it was Julian, heaving for breath, tears pouring from his eyes, coming to his door and telling him that there was an accident, Ty, and Livvy didn’t make it.

After that, he drowned in his books, wanting to leave the house, leave the place where Livvy had lived with him, but lived no longer. He wanted to go to Scholomance, where he would bring her back.

He hadn’t realized, not until he sent the letter to Nefartatul, that he had done the exact same thing Livvy told him not to.

What would honor her memory more? A failed resurrection done with demonic powers, or a happy life away from the issues of Heaven and Hell, just like she wanted?

Ty had failed her.

Ty had failed her, and he had to fix it.

…

The cave was dark and humid, smelling worse as each second passed. Kit’s body shook along with the ground, solid proof that he was doomed.

Mihaela tried his best to comfort him, nuzzling his face and spitting lightning over his head, but nothing worked. He was a dead man.

“Kit!” he heard someone scream.

He leaned in closer to the wall, letting Mihaela block his vision. He knew he wasn’t exactly invisible, not even camouflaged in the slightest, but he had to at least try hiding.

“Kit, I know you’re in there.” Ty appeared in front of him, already scratching behind Mihaela’s ears. “We gotta go.”

“I— What—” Kit mumbled as Ty offered him a hand and lifted him up. “Where are you going?”

Ty climbed on Mihaela’s back and looked at Kit, his gray eyes gleaming. “To the Ends of the Earth. Are you coming?”

“To the Ends of the Earth,” he confirmed.

**Author's Note:**

> Drop some comments/kudos if you wanna make my heart beat a little faster :)  
> Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
